Alex sensed the creature before he fully entered the room. With his gate open and his senses attuned, he always had a vague sense of where people were around him. Bodies of all kinds disturbed electromagnetic waves that permeated the world, and while he couldn''t tell exactly what was what, he could tell when a massive creature was trying to hide in the shadows of a massive open warehouse.


    "You''re a big one, aren''t you," Alex said, extending out his right arm and focusing on the image he wanted in his mind. "Junk Arm."


    Blue electric lights flashed down his arm, covering it with various metal scraps to form a mechanical arm a little longer than his normal one. Alex brought up the arm and faced down the creature, smiling. While he hadn''t found Erin in the warehouse yet, he wasn''t going to just run away from a fight.


    He''d steamroll the creature and look around after.


    Aroo!


    It howled, throwing one meaty head into the air and letting a line of drool drop to the ground as it raised its body high. Alex knew what it was then: a massive dog. He brought back his fist and took in a breath, gathering in aether and letting his leg muscles bulge.


    "Acceleration Piston!"


    Thud!


    He shot forward like a cannonball, throwing out his punch as his feet blurred. One thing he learned by watching Sayed fight was that he could incorporate the techniques from the Five Paths into his curse. When Sayed charged with his sword in his ''Demon''s Thrust,'' it wasn''t that different from using ''step'' and ''might'' while charging with his heated blade.


    Whoosh.


    The massive shadowy dog dodged him, and he sailed over it. Alex flipped his feet mid-air, using the metal beams he sensed in the building to reorient himself and kneel against the wall. He raised an eyebrow as he looked back at the waiting canine. It wagged its tail on the ground, looking up at him on his perch.


    "You''re a smart one, then," Alex whispered.


    At that moment, he heard a noise, a scuffling sound near the door. He saw two figures standing silhouetted against the light in the dim light from the hall. One held what looked like a sword and shield that practically glowed in his senses. It was definitely metal. The other was a hooded figure who stood behind.


    The dog turned to face them, leaning forward while raising its back haunches. It was ready to pounce and let out a second howl at the new intruders. As Alex watched it wag its tail, he couldn''t help but shake his head. The massive dog thought it was playing.


    "It could snap off a person''s leg with one bite, but it thinks it''s playing," he whispered.


    It made sense, to him, at least. Big dogs were most often the most friendly kind of dogs. The small dogs that his grandmother kept were mean little things that would bite people at every opportunity. He rarely had any trouble with big dogs.


    The two figures at the door backed away from the dog, and Alex saw what was about to happen. The dog would take it as a chance to chase and would pounce on them. He wasn''t sure, but at least one of those figures felt like Erin in his senses. He wasn''t about to let her turn into a chew toy.


    "Step."


    He threw himself from the wall in a flurry of motion, his feet beating against the wall like he had taken a thousand steps in a fraction of a second. He reappeared right in front of the dog in a flash of movement. He released his hold on his junk arm and imagined something else—a spherical orb that was as perfectly round as he could make it. He made it hollow and hoped for the best, but he already knew it wouldn''t be the same as a rubber ball.


    "Steel Ball."


    He held up his hand, and a spark of blue light flashed, the solid weight of the object falling into his fingers. The dog froze mid-pounce as it saw the ball shine in the light. Alex smiled. Whether it was the size of a building or a normal-sized dog, he knew of very few who could resist a ball.


    "Might."


    His arm muscles bludged as he brought back the ball and threw it to the far side of the room. With a bark, the massive dog ran after it, romping around the various crates and other objects inside as it jumped between obstacles. Alex had no idea where the ball went, but he just needed the dog distracted for long enough to check on them.


    "Alex." Erin ran behind him, stopping and gripping her fists tightly. "I don''t know where to start."


    "I''m getting that feeling, too," he said as he watched the dog rummage through the room with its snout, searching for the metal ball. "You okay?"


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    "I got out." She shrugged. "Some more people are in cages in a different room. I want to get them out if we can before we leave."


    "I''m not opposed to it." Alex nodded, still watching the dog. "Once Sayed gets William cleaned up, the faster we get out of here, the better. I think Roy went to get the Port Authority."


    Erin had seen the same thing he had at the robbery. Her face paled beneath her hood. She looked back at the man who was with her as he approached, too.


    Alex would have described him as a ''pretty boy.'' He had very sharp features and a young face, but his hair was cut short. He wore chain mail over a torn and tattered tunic and carried a sword in his right hand with a shield strapped to his left.


    Alex squinted. He thought the man looked familiar in the darkness, but he couldn''t place where he had seen him. It wasn''t important, though, as claws scratched the stone behind him, and he turned to face the dog again. It dropped the ball from its slobbering mouth.


    Thunk.


    Alex watched the ball roll to a stop against his boot. He looked up and saw the dog''s jowls slick with saliva in the darkness. The dog looked down at him, quirking its head as it waited for him to throw it again. Alex had to hold back a laugh.


    "Alright, alright," he said, levitating the ball above the dog''s head with his magnetism.


    He swung it back and forth, letting the dog''s eyes follow it before tossing it with a fling out to the far side of the room. It hit hard in the darkness before rolling to a stop somewhere among the crates. The dog jumped after it in a huff, leaving the three of them alone again.


    "We always had a cat, but dogs always make me smile," Alex said as he turned back to Erin and the stranger. "Alright, run me through what''s happening and give me the fast version. If we''re going to set people free, we need to do it and be gone before the Port Authority gets here."


    "Heroes, true heroes, enter the stage," the man said, his voice soft and high. "Ready to rip and tear, free the caged."


    "Not heroes, outlaws." Alex raised a finger as he raised an eyebrow.


    He wasn''t certain, but the man was rhyming. Had he done it intentionally, or was it accidental? He thought about the sentence. No one in their right mind would intentionally talk that way. Clearly, he meant it to be a rhyme. The question was: Why would he do that?


    "He rhymes everything he says," Erin said, nodding to Alex. "Yes, it is annoying as it sounds, but it''s part of him being a prince or a knight. I''m not sure which."


    "As I have told you, fair dame," the man said. "It from my knighthood came."


    "Alright," Alex said. "But he''s working to free slaves?"


    "He was in the cage with me," Erin said. "We got out together and were trying to get out when you and Sayed broke in."


    "Make sense."


    Thunk.


    The metal ball dropped behind Alex, and he casually lifted it again before tossing it to the other side of the room with his magnetic control. Erin watched it with wide eyes, but the man just smiled. It was like he was at a parade or a birthday party—just smiles all around.


    "Okay," Alex said. "Do you know where everyone is kept?"


    "Not in this room, but I saw three others," Erin said. "We were in one."


    "Alright, we''ll go room to room as fast as we can. Can you open the locks, or do we need a key?"


    "I can handle the locks," Erin said.


    "And I can protect her," the man said. "Bring on the the foul curs!"


    "Alright." Alex shook his head. "You guys go right, I''ll go left. Bring them back here, and don''t mess with the dog. It seems relatively tame."


    "What about if you run into—" Erin stopped, rolling her eyes, and headed out of the room to the right with the man following behind her.


    Alex followed her out into the hall, throwing the ball again to distract the dog. He took a left instead of a right and immediately turned into a fight. Sayed and William were pushing against each other, blade to blade. However, after a moment, Alex noticed the problem with William''s weapon. It was oddly shaped, resembling a lowercase ''k.''


    His curse had allowed him to manifest a chair on the shuttle. That chair had been a glorified ''h'' in lowercase. He had dropped a massive wall on Alex and Sayed, and on reflection, Alex thought that it had been shaped like an uppercase ''D.'' Now, with the ''k,'' Alex had a better idea of the man''s curse. He could manifest letters into existence, modified to a specific purpose.


    "How Platonic." Alex shook his head as he ducked into the first available door.


    He could help Sayed after, assuming the fight was still going on. Unless he thought Sayed was about to lose, there was no point wasting more time. Multitasking was the key to success in situations that had multiple fronts. He ducked inside and saw what he was looking for.


    Several cages stretched out around him, and there were people inside each. Some even had several people crammed inside of them. Each one was haggard and gaunt. Alex looked into cold, dead eyes that stared back at him with nothing left. None of them expected anything out of him. So long as he didn''t make their situation worse, they would accept whatever he did.


    "Okay." Alex reached out to all the locks at once, pulling on the mechanisms inside with his curse and releasing them.


    Click. Creak.


    "First order of business," he said. "You''re all free. Head to the open door one room to your right, and we''ll give you the best chance at escaping all of this. You''re free to try on your own, but make sure you don''t run into the fight on your left. I can''t guarantee your safety with the two men who are currently trying to kill each other."


    They looked at him, some in shock, while others only blinked.


    "Get going, or I''ll relock the doors!"


    That got most of them moving. They shuffled out into the hallway, and a few fell over as they saw the fight going on at the end. However, others were there to help them up, and they made their way right. Alex only hoped none of them tried the front door. He didn''t think it would be long before the Port Authority arrived.


    "You think you''re some kind of hero?" an old man asked, his grey whiskers fraying in all directions as he stopped at the door. "I''m leaving, but we''re all just going to get caught again."


    "Maybe you will, maybe you won''t." Alex shrugged. "But one thing I can''t do is leave you all here without doing something."


    The old man looked at him for a long moment before nodding and running out into the hall. Alex followed after, ready to go to the next room. He knew the clock was ticking. Now, he just needed to beat it before the Port Authority arrived. If they took too long, things might get messy.